Mass Effect: The Interogator
by mafer173
Summary: A soldier, who fought on the moon of Elysium and survived with Shepard, took a different path in the Alliance and is now interrogating pirates and teaching soldiers, how to resist pain. When he is called to Alliance Headquarters in an urgent Mission, his odyssey begins.
1. Chapter 1 Prologue and Exposition

**I reworked the stories protagonist. It felt wierd to use Jack as a name. So I switched it around for the next chapter, coming up. So if you want a different name write a note, please. It would be very appreciated (just like criticism, seriously).**

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When Briar Mason got the news, he was shocked. The N7 poster girl had died, come back to life and allied with terrorists. Then there was chatter on the Alliance servers, talking about her revival. Then she murdered an entire species of bugs, that abducted colonists, screwed over the Illusive Man and then just walked right into the headquarters of the Systems Alliance. This put Briar of because he had looked up to the woman, who had fought with him in the incident of Elysium.

A little backstory on Briar Jackson Mason: He was like many other alliance soldiers born in space. His mother had hired as a tech for the Alliance about two weeks into her pregnancy to get away from the abusive father, a gang leader on Earth. She was quickly promoted and took her child anywhere. Most of the officers and crewmen and -women liked the curious child and taught the kid how to read and write and how to do maths. A group of engineers explored history with Briar. The Marine detail did its best to make the kid strong. Each one of the muscular men and women fought with him, until he started to learn how to fight a soldier's fight. He learned combat knives and small caliber guns at a very young age. An asshole XO once wanted to force the then teenaged Briar to leave the ship, unless he was willing to pull his weight, which couldn't stop the teenager. He started helping the ship's resident doctor, organizing the cargo bay, cleaning weapons and working the ordinance manifesto.

After he turned eighteen, Briar enlisted as Marine and was for the first time in his life sent planetside for more than three days. And he wasn't surrounded by friends anymore.

The training was a bitch and a half to pass, but he met a couple nice people, who trained with him. One of them by the name of Elizabeth was the only one actively displaying animosity towards Briar. She later turned out to be the child of J's sperm donor, as he took to calling his genetic father. He had started to verbally abuse and berate his daughter and beating his wife, after his lover left earth for good. The fights had made Elizabeth very competitive for the approval by others and scared of change. Early in the training she used underhanded techniques, deliberately broke sparring rules and then claimed it to be an accident. To wake her up, the brass had her scrub the whole building clean of any dirt, twice. She was the commanding officer of the cadets after training ended and started to berate the others in her unit, whenever she could.

Then the first deployment came. There were sent to a small moon base close to Elysium as a defensive unit. When they arrived, they were deployed in the middle of the pirate attack. Shepard was on Elysium to fight. Elizabeth was the first to fall. A Batarian energy whip wrapped around the neck of the young Senior Chief and ripped the head off leaving a charred stump. The incident got Briar into her position as first in command. He redistributed his forces around a defense cannon that could take out the slavers' ships. But the ground forces remained a problem and quickly killed them all. The soldiers were then picked up in body bags. Briar made it out alive. When he was picked up, he was in a coma and declared dead by paramedic. He woke up in the cargo hold during the service for him and his unit. The officers shit themselves. Literally.

Later Briar was stuffed into the exact same hospital as Shepard, recuperating from the injuries.

He was being treated for PTSD and many bullet wounds, as well as a whip wound in his abdominal area. The surgeons were cool, even Sirta, who personally visited his bed to explain the function of medigel. The nurses treated him with a good mood and made him laugh a lot, although that hurts a lot more, than he expected. The rehab was cool. He was in the same group as Shepard, although she never showed up after the second meeting. The officers at rehab were unpleasant about his uniform, but couldn't stop him at all. His psychologist was an ass. She always asked him about his experiences and reacted way too slow to lie to him, to soothe him about his experiences. They were always the most unpleasant talks he ever had in his time of career.

He quickly took the first chance to leave. Briar was right away promoted to Lt. Commander and redeploy him with Interrogations. When he last saw Shepard, he had his mind wrapped around being Lt. Commander Mason in the black site for Batarian slavers. He wasn't publicly known, but he quickly began to break as many bones as humanly possible and to make everyone buckle under the pressure. He managed to get rid of his fears of slavers and began questioning the targets in question in a very accurate and aimed way. His main method was to find access to a person's mind through talks and then to find a way to exploit those weaknesses. His focus was talking, but he also used his limited biotics to cause pain and wouldn't shy away from old-fashioned beatings. The Alliance kept the interrogation facilities hidden from the public's eye to avoid dumb questions, asked by nosey reporters like Khalisah al-Jilani. His boss was very specific on not to talk to this specific reporter, the Briar would turn and run, when he saw that specific reporter and hovering camcorder. His untreated phobia of these floating nightmares was partly to blame for that, although he managed to hold still when marching in smaller parades. He even sat through an entire interview with Diana Allers, as the only other surviving soldier of the Elysium incident, without showing any signs of his phobia.

The hard strain the long hours of questioning took, forced Briar to exercise every day, even in the night to gain muscles and to keep his body and mind from stalling in critical moments. It turned into something habitual, that would even make the Turian drill sergeants envious.

After the destruction of the Destiny Ascension the Alliance buckled under pressure and released some data to certain ranking members of the Council species. An Asari apparently found out about the black sites and the high success rates of the interrogations, although they were never directly mentioned, there were hints of a large alliance vessel cruising about and whenever it stopped would deliver a pack of information on the hideouts of a pirate gang that had recently assaulted one of the human related active positions in Alliance space. Sometimes it would approach Council detainment vessels and hand over an inmate, that was in pristine medical condition, but psychological mess. She deducted the rest and contacted the admiral in charge about her thoughts on the matter. When she saw a chance, she blackmailed the admiral into handing over one of her interrogators to the Asari in the training facilities of Ilium in resisting torture and dealing with pain. Briar was chosen, because he was efficient at extracting information and knew how to resist pain.

Bored with his old job, he packed his bags and left for Ilium, looking for a fun and intriguing journey and experience, 10 months before the resurrection of Commander Shepard by Cerberus. And he would get it, but not in the way he asked for. He had already received a request by Cerberus to join Commander Shepard's crew, which he refused with a very unpleasant mail, containing a lot insults and jokes.


	2. Chapter 2 The beginning of a journey

When the message of Shepard's arrest came to Briar's omni-tool, he was using his biotics to interrogate a young Asari. She hasn't said anything yet, but Briar could see her break on a subconscious level. He leaves the room and walks up and down the corridor, while reading the memo, that another Alliance interrogator sent around. Briar is nervous and continues to pace around the corridor. The Asari in charge runs up to him and demands: "Why did you stop? The training is not over yet. Get back in there, Lt. Commander Mason!" Briar is not having any of it and moves right into her face and grumbles: "She is absolutely useless. She can resist my relatively weak biotics really well, but physical violence is really horrible. I can offer you anything. From idealized interrogations to sadistic torture. I am not yet ready to do that to some little girl. Please stop asking me to do that."

Briar just walks past her and heads towards his little office. It looks more like a janitor's storage room with removed utensils. He sits down and reads his messages. One of them is five minutes old and from his admiral, and of course it is classified.

The information says: "Lt. Commander Mason, effective immediately, you are to report back to Alliance Headquarters. More information will be accessible upon arrival." Briar answers with a message: "This is Lt. Commander Mason. I am currently deployed on Illium in a training center for Asari Commandos. What do I tell them?"

The reply is surprising. Briar's holoprojector starts up and rings loudly. Briar jumps up and grabs his uniform's Briaret and drags it on. Then, while answering the call, he quickly buttons the front. The admiral appears in front of and greets: "Good morning, Lt. Commander Mason. Please take your stuff. We will send a replacement to the Asari, to take care of interrogations over there. We need you for a specific case in the headquarters and you will not remain over there. Are we clear?"

"Clear as day, Admiral Yin-Chu!"

"Good."

"Why was I requested for the mission?"

"I am not allowed to tell you this on this line. Please report to Alliance headquarters as soon as possible."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Good." The ends the call from her side. Briar remains at attention for a few more seconds, puzzled about the order, but starts packing up again and smiles. It is not too hard to take care of the necessities. He only needs to pack two uniforms some underwear and communications equipment. The rest is loaned from a kind woman, who works close to the port. He owes the Asari a favor, for organizing proper human alcohol and books to read. She yet has to cash it in.

Briar picks up his bag and leaves his room, where he almost collides with the Matriarch of the training facility. The Asari's face shines in specific light blue way, that reminds the Lt. Commander of the ocean in the vids of his mother. The Asari before him already reached a ripe age of 800 years. She wears a long light red robe and a necklace from her Krogan father. Briar once in the last 10 months on Illium got her drunk enough to tell him that, but before he could find out more, the other Asari ushered her away and gave Briar angry stares.

Now the Asari is standing in front of Briar's office and asks: "Are you leaving already?" Her posture seems like someone asking, but to Briar the use of a biotic field is noticeable. She is enforcing her position. Briar pulls up the messages on his omni-tool, which details his redeployment. She quickly reads the message, only moving her eyes. She looks back at Briar's eyes and flashes a smile, which looks cute and majestic at the same time. This smile always makes Briar sweat bullets, because he cannot interpret the emotions in this smile at all.

Psychology gives Briar an edge over the questioned, so he instinctively uses it on other People around him, especially his superiors, to understand how they work. This makes him glad about the fraternization laws on the ships and outposts, which the Alliance even enforces on Illium, to Briar's relief, so most of the superiors, Briar interacts with, are not 'engaged in intimate relations with someone of a lower rank within the armed forces'. This Matriarch is beyond reproach. She is very revered by her mates and has over a hundred different children.

The Matriarch then suddenly breaks character and hugs Briar, while whispering: "If you find time, come by. We could get wasted really hard. Like last time." Briar is surprised and takes a step back and looks at her face. She smiles kindly and hugs him again. Then another Asari walks around the corner and the Matriarch steps back again, taking a dignified stance and gives a standard goodbye: "Safe journeys, Lt. Commander Mason."

Briar Mason hints a bow, by slightly tilting his upper body forward and then leaves, straightening his uniform and puts his cap on. Then he walks off towards the exit, brushing past the Asari at the entrance, who looks at him quizzically.

On his way to the port, he receives his order to move towards Earth. They are simple and clearly aimed at getting him to base as quickly as possible. Every day wouldn't be as good as this one for such travels. Today an entire freighter, filled with E-Zero, is destined towards Earth. They are gathering as many Marines as possible to guard the transport. Lt. Commander Mason is supposed to be second in command of the guard detail.

To reach the space port, Briar has to walk quite a distance on foot through the Wards. He quickly learned not to let his guard down, while walking on Ilium. There are beautiful places, where young beautiful men and women mingle and Asari prepare their mating with different species, but many places are outright horrible to enter, with gangs, mercenaries and drug lords. Briar was once abducted by serial killer and dragged into an apartment filled with dead bodies. At some point the Asari got cocky and broke her control of Briar's mind for a second and he, almost in impulse gutted her with his omni-tool. He dragged the bleeding corpse to the Enforcers and left, before the Justicar there could ask him even a single question. Sadly, he didn't get a reward. All he got was a notification and a bill for public littering.

Briar passes the Enforcer's office and arrives at the cab station and pays the cab to take him to the second closest station to the space port and takes a stroll along the market of Ilium. He passes a vendor for the newest sniper rifle, the Black Widow, but he couldn't afford it. It wouldn't even suit his taste of weapons and the ordnance bureau is a bit touchy about that. Another stall sells implants, that amplify biotics and red sand. A single author, an Asari, that lived aboard a human ship for 5 years, is selling her own books about a romance between a Justicar and a human private. She already wrote 3 volumes and refuses to publish them on the holonet. The only way to access them is through a hardcover copy in her store. The fourth volume is already complete and was published today. Briar grabs a copy and pays the 300 credits for the book. Which is dead cheap for 500 pages of awesome and romantic entertainment. He stows the book away in his bag, hiding it in his dress uniform, because he had no wish to explain, why he reads that entire series. Another market sells souvenirs of Ilium. Briar buys a new trigger assembly for his submachine gun, although he has no clue, why that is sold at a souvenir shop. Another store sells a specialized cluster grenade, that launches explosive shrapnel upon detonation. Briar buys three. A stand sells copious amounts of element zero and palladium. Briar walks past. Element Zero is of no use to him and Palladium is radioactive.

Another stall is manned by a Batarian "diplomat", selling slaves to interested customers. The local authorities cannot intervene with this blatant disregard for the rules of diplomacy. The Batarien sees Briar and approaches him. Before Briar can shank the man, he starts sweet-talking Briar, to buy a slave. "Today's special: A Turian female for your special kinks! Have your revenge for the first contact war", he calls in a boisterous voice, grabbing Briar's shoulder firmly. With the next sentence he spins the young officer around: "Buy her and get a Quar…" The Batarian turns pale and stammers: "You? How did you… By the Scrolls of Strength, how?" "Don't touch me", Briar snaps, "or you'll leave without an arm." The Batarian stammers something unintelligible and then turns and runs towards the space port. Briar is left alone with an abandoned stall, with a young Turian woman, several Asari and a Quarian engineer standing around awkwardly.

The Enforcers approach Briar and ask: "What was that?"

"Don't know, don't care", Briar answers.

"Guess he won't be coming back to Ilium. Do I wanna know why?"

"No, you don't."

"Okay, great! Wanna give me your name for the record?"

"Yeah. It's Lt. Commander Briar Mason of the Alliance Fleet."

"Good. Don't kill anyone."

"I won't, I am already leaving the planet. Bye."

The enforcers start freeing the slaves. The Turian woman winks at Briar, while he is walking off. This makes Briar speed away. He isn't a xenophobe, but he isn't interested in a romantic relation at the moment. Especially not with a freed slave, whose broker was terrified of him.

The woman from the space port, that organized human alcohol and acceptable human literature, sends Briar a quick message. It reads: 'Please visit me, before leaving the planet entirely. I want you to take something to Earth with you for me. LT' Briar turns his omni-tool off and shakes his head. He sincerely hopes that it isn't a bomb. When he arrives at the office, the door is locked and only the secretary is still around, smiling kindly. When she sees him, she stands up and says, with a customer service smile: "Hello, Lt. Commander Mason. This is the package that the broker wants you to deliver." With these words, she passes Briar a small package, hat contains a bottle, which has liquid contents. "Does it explode?", Briar asks. The secretary shakes her head and smiles. The smile is still customer service style. Briar puts the bottle in his bag and leaves the office again. Now Briar had enough and walks towards the space port.

At the space port dozens of marines and crew are boarding shuttles towards the freighter. The boarder control of Ilium returns Briar's weapons and armor. He quickly checks, if anything is missing. Everything is still there. He has standard issue Alliance combat gear, with the specializations for a Paladin. His weapons are non-standard alliance equipment. A Tempest submachine gun and a Carnifex hand cannon. The Carnifex was barely accepted by the ordnance office, but there were no problems with the submachine gun.

A Commander in uniform walks up to Briar, while he is checking his belongings. The Commander asks: "Lt. Commander Briar Mason?" "Yes, sir!", Briar answers, assuming position. The Commander gives a tired wave and walks off. Briar follows and the Commander starts his rant about the cargo and the mediocre security detail of "twats and idiots". The Commander extends his hand and says: "Sorry. I didn't give my name yet." "Yes, sir!", Briar responds. The Commander waves with his hand in front of Briar's face and says: "Are you from some colonies, where they don't shake hands?" Briar steps forward and clasps the hand briefly.

The steward stands upright and looks at him with a neutral expression. The Commander and Briar give their identification number and their names. The steward looks at Commander Daar and Lt. Commander Mason for a minute. Then he enters a code on his tool and walks away.

The Commander boards the shuttle and motions Briar over. Briar follows the Commander aboard. The door of the shuttle closes and leaves the spaceport.


	3. Chapter 3 the Ship and the Departure

Aboard the freighter, Briar leaves the shuttle and is promptly greeted by the chaos of an unscheduled departure. The Marines are setting up shop in one of the empty hangars, because the crew quarters are either stuffed or converted into storage areas. The marines are constructing small field shelters as individual rooms, with 4 people sleeping in one of the rooms. Commander Daar is the only staff officer, that receives a room in the crew quarters. Briar has to share with a Lieutenant and two Ensings. Commander Daar snickers at Briar for having to sleep with the other Marines. They talk about the guard routes and where stationary guards should be positioned. Daar wants to guard the bridge and the storage facilities. Briar suggests additional on the engineer decks to protect the drive core and the other integral systems, like life-support and other stuff one might need.

Daar is very confident in himself: "I don't need your opinion. I know what I am doing, so shut up! Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir!", Briar answers, standing at attention.

Daar leans in and asks in a cutting voice: "Are we clear, Lt. Commander Mason?"

Still standing at attention, Briar answers: "Yes, sir."

Daar turns around and walked away and leaves Briar dumbstruck and worried. One single Marine walks up to Briar and asks as nicely as he can: "May I help you, sir?" Briar waves and says: "We are having minor discussions about the position of the stationary guards. We two disagree. And that's it." "Are we guarding the engineering deck. Please tell me, that we are finally learning from previous assaults", The Marine whines. Briar smiles kindly and shakes his head: "We are guarding the bridge and the cargo. Get your armor and don't forget your airtight helmets. Be at attention once the ship has left orbit. Spread the message, Marine." Briar turns around and drags his equipment to the lockers on the far side of the hangar. There he neatly orders his armor pieces and puts the guns in the designated racks. The ordnance officer walks by and gives Briar 5 thermal mags for each of his two guns, then he asks: "Need any grenades with that?" "No. I got my own. Just bought them", Briar answers and holds up his cluster grenades. The guy slaps his forehead and says: "Don't use those aboard the ships. I'll give you biotic grenades, to prevent any fuckups and they don't cost you 600 credits a piece. Here you go" With these words he drops three grenades into Briar's hands and moves on. Briar trails the man with his eyes and then puts them in his locker.

He wants to leave the locker, but decides to take his heavy pistol along, so he reopens his locker and takes his belt with the small gun in its folded state. He places it around his hip and closes the belt. Other marines don't have this kind of thing anymore, because they wear their armor when fighting, but guards, that do not wear armor still have belts for this stuff. These are equipped with emergency shields that can catch a single burst from an assault rifle, a shotgun blast or a shot from a high-powered sniper rifle. He knows this belt is of no particular use, but he prefers to still have it and his gun at the ready.

The Marines are settling in quietly. Briar and Daar didn't give any orders on the topic, telling people to deal with it themselves. Usually it works and everybody is happy and leaves the commanding officers alone. But today, two extremely buff marines are fighting about the last bunk in the quarters, closest to the small training ground, where there is a small fitness rack for the leisure time. Briar intervenes and places them far away on different ends of the hangar city. Another scrawny young marine is put in the now empty bunk.

Because the Alliance guard detail is not enough, the Ilium government sent an entire squad of Asari Huntresses along to protect the cargo. Apparently, the amount of Ezoo in the storage is enough to validate a lot of guards, but no cruisers to protect the ship.

The Asari commando, consisting of 5 very powerful biotics approaches Briar and the leader asks: "We, as a group, require lodging as well and would like to ask for assistance in finding a place, where we can stay."

"Of course, Miss... I am very sorry we weren't introduced, yet. My name is Lt. Commander Mason", Briar says, while smiling and offers her a hand to shake. The youngest of the Huntresses leans towards their leader and whispers: "Clasp his hand and shake it. It's a customary greeting among humans." The leader of the Huntresses leans forward and shakes Briar's hand, smiling. When they let go of one another's hand, Briar looks at her awkwardly, expecting her to introduce herself, until he remembers, that Huntresses/ Commandos never introduce themselves to people. "The housing for you and your team. We are already mostly booked, but I will check, whether there is still housing left for you and your team. Please follow me", he offers kindly.

The Commandos follow Briar through the cramped camp. In the back, closest to the humming life support of the hangar. "I hope you can deal with a little ritualistic humming and noise. Magazines can be obtained at the armory. Here is the pass to let you in", Briar says, while giving the leader a tablet with important data, like the time, when the chow opens, where the showers are, how to complain about another Marine and many other hints about, how to live with almost 100 Marines in a cramped environment. The organizers even included a document, that all sexual activity aboard the freighter, that does not serve only recreational purposes is strictly prohibited.

This includes:

\- - The linking of Quarian suit environments (not because of reproduction, but the pharmacies are not equipped to deal with Quarian immune systems)

\- Salarian mating and egg breeding (fucks up traffic in the engineering rooms, and the use of heat sinks for said activity is not recommended allowed. Seriously, stop fucking with our rules. 'Not recommended' means that your eggs are boiled within seconds of the slightest combat and the smell is just unpleasant. (The gunner, who found them, while cleaning the main battery, has PTSD now.)

\- Krogan mating dances (cleaning details have filed enough complaints about blood in the room and a Captain had a mental breakdown, when it was insinuated, that there were way too many dead Krogans on his ship and he was asked to give the reason.)

\- And to not be racist any other form of sexual activity, that yields pregnancy or a severe risk to the mission… I am looking at you Flight Lieutenant Moreau!

Briar shakes his head, while reading the document. The was changed several dozen times, so it could be published and still sounds extremely edgy…  
'Oh my god, the Admirals in charge of ethics back home, must be really mad about something.'

The Leader steps forward and opens the door. The room is standard issue, with only four beds. She turns around and says in a snarling voice: "There are only 4 beds in here" She uses a non-standard Asari dialect, that many commandos use in their communication. The Commandos laugh and one of them makes a rude joke about illiterate humans and how even their youngest is older then most of the men combined. Briar learnt the dialect, while training commandos and says in perfect dialect: "I was going to offer another bed, but it looks like one of you will have to sleep on the ground." Then he turns around and leaves the five standing in the room.

Briar makes his way through the settling chaos and heads towards his small cabin by the training ground. The two Ensigns that Briar will be living with are standing next to the door and are snickering about a joke, one of them just told. When they see Briar approaching, they shuffle to stand at attention and look at the Lt. Commander with a mild interest. Briar answers the salute and walks through the door of the cabin.

It's a small room with two lockers at the back wall and two footlockers below each of the of the two bunk beds. There is a main light under the ceiling and each of the beds has a reading light. That is way more luxurious than anything, Briar had on other ships,

Then he takes his clothes bag to the foot locker underneath his bunk and dumps it in there. Then he takes the fifth chapter of "Blue and Bullets", the book about the Asari justicar in love with a Human. Its smutty, but well written, to the point where Briar starts reading and forgets to deal with the other stuff, he should actually be taking care of.

The protagonist, an Asari justicar, that almost reached the Matriarch age, goes to a small human colony to hunt an Ardat- Yakshi. When she arrives there, the humans of the colony are already dead. She hunts the Ardat- Yakshi through the mine of the colony and in the final fight of the first volume, ignites an Element Zero storage to kill her enemy. The explosion collapsed the mine over the hideout of the Ardat- Yakshi, but wounded the Justicar heavily and sent her into a coma. At the beginning of the second instalment, she is woken up by the sound of FTL engines on a human cruiser with a very angry doctor, changing her bandages. Afterwards she is on a very colorful and romantic adventure to see the universe and all of its perks. It the latest installment she and the doctor are finally getting closer to one another.

Briar is kinda into the story, because it is well written and researched, other than most human romances, involving other species. And definetly better than the Turian stuff, that involves half human and half Turian offsprings. After the first contact war, Turians published hundreds of different books, describing the humans, ranging from scientific publications to cheap porn. They were really interested in the new space faring species, that wouldn't take crap from anyone. There was even a publication on furries. Briar read about half of it and couldn't keep from giggling. To the Turians the "Furry" is a subspecies of the homo sapiens sapiens, that developed in the first decade of the 21st century. Briar laughed at the thought of it. He gifted his copy of the book to one of his bunkmates in basic training, who was a furry. He threw the book and the two had a fist fight about it.

He gets through to the second chapter of his book, when a Lieutenant busts in and looks extremely worried. The woman calls out: "Here he is!", gesturing wildly in the direction of Briar on his bunk. There is a brief hustle of steps and a sharp knocking on the door. Briar jumps up, straightens his uniform and asks: "Yes?" A young female Lt. Commander enters the small room, making it even more cramped with the two Ensigns and the Lieutenant in the room. She stands in front of Briar and makes a demand: "I want my own room. Make it happen."

Briar looks at the Lieutenant and asks: "Am I missing something?"

"Sir, she said, that it was under her honor as a Lt. Commander to share her room with officers of lower rank", the Lieutenant recites, standing steady and continues with an edge of spite, "That's what she said."

The new young Lt. Commander makes hell break lose and starts screaming racial slurs, insults and diminutive words at Briar and the young Lieutenant. The tirade is accompanied by gesture and several punches and slaps. Briar learned to not engage in such fights. Being the guy he is, the aftermath usually ends up terribly.

The situation defuses, when Commander Daar enters the conversation, making breathing finally impossible in this cramped little space and asks: "Are you disrespecting your superiors, Lieutenant?" The Lieutenant snaps into position, standing at attention and responds: "No, sir!" The room falls silent and everybody watches Daar. "Good", Daar responds and then looks at Briar, "get her what she wants. She asked nicely, I presume."

Briar nods, salutes and walks out of the shelter, that poses as his room. The other Lt. Commander follows him, with the Lieutenant in tail and smiles to herself. Briar walks up to the engineer in charge of building these cramped things and asks: "Do we have enough spare parts to build another shelter for our esteemed guest here? Her name is Lt. Commander..." "Elise Delafonte", the young woman adds. "Okay. I take a look", the engineer says, pretending to go through his manifesto, then looks up and says 'no' with a clean face. Briar snorts a laughter and says to Delafonte: "Can't help you, I'm sorry."

The Lt. Commander looks even more irate and starts to huff off towards Commander Daar and complains loudly to him pointing at Briar, the Lieutenant and the Engineer. Again, there are a lot of mean words sprinkled in and Briar can hear everything. She even insinuates, that Commander Daar will be fired by her daddy, if he does not cater to her every need. Commander Daar looks serious at first but then suddenly bursts into laughter. The complaining Lt. Commander is actually shocked. Then Daar regains his compusure and starts lecturing the Delafonte about it. In the process he points to Briar and the others several times.

Then he leans and looks at her very sternly. She kicks in a snide remark on how she knows his direct superior and that she'll get her way anyway. Commander Daar suddenly waves Briar and the young Lieutenant over. Briar speeds over, almost kicking a marine on the way. The Lieutenant follows just as quickly, only that she actually kicks the Marine. The Marine is a sport about it doesn't protest loudly about it at all.

The two stop in front of Commander Daar and Briar asks, standing at attention: "Yes, sir?" "Do help this good **Lieutenant **into the brig for insubordination and fraternization on the job", Daar says, pointing at Delafonte. Briar is just as surprised about it as the newly demoted Lieutenant Delafonte. She opens her mouth and starts yelling: "You can't do this you chauvinist fuckt..." Before she can get through her sentence, Daar points his overcharge tool at her head and asks: "Can't do what? I dare you to finish that sentence."  
An awkward silence ensues, while Briar activates his omnitool and calls the two closest Marines over. The Marines, the two Ensigns, that stay in Briar's room come running and stand at attention. "Take this Lieutenant to the holding cell", Briar orders. The Marines step forward and grab the poor Lieutenant, that arrived together with Briar. Daar laughs and says: "No, that's the wrong one. This one." He gives Delafonte a nudge and smiles: "They'll take you to your private quarters. You'll like them. They are just for you." The two Marines grin and grap the former Lt. Commander by the shoulder and drag her away.

She screams and flails about, before disappearing out of view. The Lieutenant is flabbergasted, while Briar and Daar start laughing to relieve the stress. In tears Briar finally asks, between two laughs: "What are we going to do about the vacant spot as Lt. Commander? Promote the mascot of the ship? Lt. Commander Fluffy the Cat?" Daar answers over another burst of laughter: "Let's promote our good Lieutenant here. That should solve our issues. Especially with the nice Rear Admiral who is in charge of this operation." The lieutenant wants to refuse, but decide to talk her into it.

Daar: "You have to take it. It's a lot of honor in accepting."

Lt.: "I don't want to profit from the misery of someone else."

Briar: "Never seen anyone chicken out of a promotion before.

Daar: "The almighty Marines are actually scared of a deserved promotion. Here I am, fighting nepotism and all I get is an Interrogator and Marines, who can't say thank you to a promotion."

Lt.: "I don't want to thrive on the misery of someone else."

Briar: "You are not thriving on her misery, but on Daar's happiness. He wants to stick it to the children of Generals, who use their Daddy or Mommy to bribe their way through the Alliance. You can be promoted, or we'll find another Lieutenant to do it. That easy."

Lt.: "Fine. I hereby formally accept the offered promotion."

She salutes and walks away. Daar looks at Briar and says: "Great."

Then he leaves as well. Briar looks around and decides to go meet the main crew of the ship. The take-off is due in 5 minutes at sixteen-hundred. The Marines are gathering on the training ground and preparing for the briefing. Briar walks over and waits there, standing next to the spot, where the Commander is supposed to stand. But Commander Daar does not show up. The ignition is heard in the entire ship and the warning bells for the breach of atmosphere go off five minutes later. Briar decides to contact Daar on his omnitool via the ship's network. The Commander picks up and sounds exasperated.

"You have to do the briefing and we'll be using your guard pattern, Lt. Commander Mason. The father of Miss Delafonte is hounding me to help his little angel back into the rank of Lt. Commander. I am in a conference call with him, his boss and the boss's boss. God knows, how long this is going to take. Daar out", is the entire text of the call. Briar deactivates the call function and steps in the position of the Commander, with the other, newly-assigned Lt. Commander, looking at him in confusion. Briar announces: "Good morning. My name is Lt. Commander Briar Mason. I am sharing the spot as the second in command, because I will only assist this unit during this mission. The other Lt. Commander next to me is a friend you all know." Briar is interrupted by approving cheers and a woman that moves out of her designated position to hug the Lt. Commander. Briar lets it happen. Then he continues: "Anyway, we are supposed to guard the vital components of this ship during our travels. We'll have two guards at the bridge, four guards each of the cargo decks and two for the engine room. That makes 12 stationary guards. 8 more will follow standard guard patterns along the halls and protect the other decks." The Marines nod to indicate their agreement. "Twenty more on active standby in the shift. The others are on free time. The schedule is out. I only had you ID-numbers and specializations to work with. If you want to complain about the schedule, approach me, when I'm in my office. Do not try to gang up on me in some dark corner. We're marines, not petty criminals. Questions?"

One of the Marines raises his hand and asks: "Can we talk about the housing?"

"Why? Is something unpleasant? I am sure, that you should direct your complaints towards the 'manager' of the engineers that built them", Briar answer, "Any volunteers for the first shift?"

The thing, that happens every time this phrase is uttered: The soldiers fall silent and just look a little amused. Briar laughs and says: "I knew it. This is the reason, why I have a worked out a ready schedule. If I catch anyone sleeping on guard duty, I will be very unpleasant. Dismissed."

The Marines download the plan to their omnitools and read it. The first shift guards mumble unpleasantries and walk towards the lockers. The standby crew follows and the 40 men and women arm up for their first eight-hour shift. The remaining 80 Marines disappear into the depths of the barracks, that look like temporary housing on Arcturus station after the destruction of Eden Prime. Briar snickers and turns around to leave. A wall of blue is in his face.

One of the Commandos is standing in front of Briar and looking him in the eye. The Asari is exceptionally tall, towering an entire head over Briar, who already is taller than human average. The Commando has opened her upper armor to show more cleavage. She clearly is not the seductress of the team, as most men, even Briar, feel emasculated by her forceful presence. She tries a soft voice: "I really need a place to sleep. Can't you do something to help me with that?" Briar takes a step back, to ease the strain in his neck from looking up to see her eyes. "No problem. Just ask our field technician over there to take care of that. He should have a spare or two", Briar answers kindly and transfers a document to her omnitool. "this is a procurement form. Fill it out and sign your name there. He will want to see it." When the Asari Commando turns around to leave, Briar mumbles: "And put something on, god damn it." The Asari, already leaving towards the technician turns red, like a blueish shade of red, but clearly visible. She starts to fiddle with her armor to cover everything again. The new Lt. Commander looks around watches the scene in full view. Lt. Commander Jill Salazar, as Briar pulls from her fills, looks at Briar with a mildly amused facial expression.

All Briar wants to do now is read another chapter of his book. He leaves the training area as well and walks towards his room, when his omnitool starts beeping. A call from Daar. Briar picks up and a stressed-out voice asks: "You have retinal cameras, right?" Briar looks confused and asks: "One of my eyes has been modified to house a miniature camera, due to wound I experienced on the moon of Elysium. Why is that important?" Daar asks: "Is there a buffer, that saves the material, it records?" "Yes, sir. I have the last 50 hours, of my life saved on the storage in my omnitool. Again, I do not understand, how this is of any importance to you", Briar answers. Daar does not answer to the question, but goes on to ask: "The microphone in your ear is linked to it?" "Yes sir. The sound is synchronized to within a hundredth of a second and saved. Again: Why are you asking, sir?", Briar answers. Daar sighs in relief and laughs: "Delafonte's dad is busy tearing me new one, when I said, that you were involved, they got an Admiral, I never heard about, on the line. Her name was Admiral Yin-Chu. Admiral Delafonte called me out for lying and mocked me, but Admiral Yin-Chu insisted on your cybernetic implants and that the situation should be proven by them and the surveillance. Could you transfer me the data of that period to my omnitool?" Briar is a little speechless and looks at Daar. A snarling voice in the background announces: "Of course he is not allowed to force you to volunteer the information at all, as it is classified information of the N4 interrogations division." The voice pushes Briar over the edge. He hates entitlement even more than plain stupidity.

"All right. As my commanding officer, Admiral Yin-Chu has given me the direct order to send all audio-visual data of the last hour to this designated conference call", Briar intonates, before leaving sending the data package away.

Daar thanks Briar profusely and hangs up.


	4. Chapter 4 Legal and Illegal Visitors

After the call ended, everything continues smoothly. Briar is asked to use the vacant desk in the shitty CIC, that some nutcase welded into rear end of the bridge. He declines and says that is a spot only suitable for a Commander. Daar can't refuse, because he is still in the middle of his conference with several Admirals over the commlink.

Briar walks along the ship and searches its nicks and hiding places. It is a large ship, but the two, enormous cargo decks are filled with tanks, filled to the brim with Element Zero. Apparently, this is the biggest haul of this stuff since the first excavation operation on Mars. Humanity is developing its military.

According to the Treaty of Faraxin humanity, as a Council species, can now freely build the dreadnoughts, they were planning. They already exist, but the Treaty specified that the dreadnought is about over one kilometer long, and armed with heavy mass effect cannons. Humanity took to building so-called "Ultra-Heavy Cruisers", which are 990 meters long and equipped with intermediate mass effect cannons, heavy railguns, rocket batteries and torpedo tubes. Now according to the new promotion of humanity, the heavy mass effect cannons are installed and new frigates are being constructed according to the Normandy patterns.

When Briar walks through the crew deck, towards the mess hall, he meets the Asari again. They five of them are lost. The eldest is adamant, that they should go left. An Asari with this sniper look, offers in a calm, almost serene voice to go left. The tall Asari is practically roaring about asking the crew for directions, which everyone else in the group outright refuses. Briar taps his cap as he walks past and heads towards the mess hall. For a moment he ponders, whether he should let them get lost, or show the way. Briar decides to show the way. He approaches them again and asks kindly: "Excuse me?" All five Asari scan Briar from head to toe. The tallest catches on first and says: "Yes?" "Are you headed to the mess hall? I have a few questions about your positioning in the guard schedule." The Asari jump at the chance and follow Briar. He brushes ahead and talks over his shoulder, until they reach the mess hall.

Some of the Marines, which are off duty, have gathered around tables. One of the tables directly next to the officers' table is unoccupied. The Asari sit down and wave to the cook. The man is surprised, but returns to his job, without reacting. The oldest Asari mutters: "Bad service. Just bad." Briar smiles and explains: "This is a canteen. You have to go to the counter and pick, what the cook offers." The Asari are confused. "Is that a human thing?", the tallest asks. _Hell yeah, it is._  
"We do that to spite other species except for the Turians. Their best restaurants are like this."

Briar walks up to the counter. He knows the fat man behind the pot and calls: "Hey, you fat Briarass! This is where you ended up? Couldn't afford to work on a space station, where you fit behind the counter?" The cook looks at Briar and claps back: "I came here to never see your scarred face again. Man! Your voice is as annoying as ever." The cook waves with his giant knife, but drops it and comes around the counter to hug the Briar. The Asari are again surprised.

Most of them have experienced a human greeting before. All of them were very formal or distanced. While Briar and the cook bond over their experiences in the past, the Asari try to communicate the best course of action. The team leader steps up and growls: "We wanted to get some food." The cook looks at her and then laughs: "Do you consume meat? Cause we're fresh out of vegan meals." The fat jolly man uses a light Texan accent, when speaking even a little. The Asari have a hard time understanding, what the overweight human is saying. The apparent seductress is first in understanding and tries her job. She approaches the cook and asks in a warm voice: "What are you making?" The cook reacts on point. He turns bright red and stutters: "I m- made pork for the crew and everyone. Are you interested in the food?" The crew and the marines grin and exchange money for a bet. Most of the Marines are a little disappointed.

Briar looks at the board on the wall. There is a section for bets. The newest is very obvious: How long will it take for the Asari to get one of the officers under their spell. Briar can see his own name. Most of the Marines are placing him second, after the cook. One of the mechanics from the ship's crew has an entire monthly salary running against him.

The Asari are sat down by a flustered 'chef de cuisine' at the table next to the officers'. He actually serves them on plates, while everyone else is stuck using steel trey with dents and scratching in them. The utensils are still the same. It always reminds Briar of how his mom and the other Marines would sit together and how Briar, that unkempt ass from engineering got a knife in his hand after touching the butt of the XO. She just turned around, slammed the trey into his face and when he stumbled and grabbed a table to not fall over, she jabbed the knife through his hand, pinning him to the table. Briar was eight at the time and got to watch all of it. His mom keeps saying that apparently yelled: "Strike!" Actually, Briar forgot that part, because he can clearly remember, how the CO was raising hell afterwards.

The food is good, if one accepts the fact, that the food either has no spices at all or enough to set the stalls on fire afterwards. Today is very bland. The second Lieutenant Commander sits down on the other side of the officer's table, facing Briar. She got herself a full serving. She uses the regular conversation starter on Briar: "So, why do you have two surnames?" Briar looks up and asks: "Huh, oh yeah, that. Jackson is my second name. My mom's maiden name is Mason. She divorced my dad as soon as she found out that she was pregnant with my smart ass. Jackson is, according to her the first name of her grandpa, who I never met in all my time. Why are you asking?" The Lt. Commander looks at her plate and states matter-of-factly: "There are way too many people asking you that, am I right?" Briar laughs: "No. That's not a problem. I am used to people asking that. It's better to ask right away, right? The awkward stares piss me off even more."

The Lt. Commander leans in and asks: "Are you a good shot?" Briar looks up from his food, puzzled. She goes on to explain the question: "I heard about you. You are the only survivor from the moon of Elysium. Heard you're a decent shot, from some report about you on the moon." Briar drops his fork and leans back. Then he looks at her smiling: "You mean the report by Diana Allers? You're one of the few Marines that remembers more than Miss Allers face and her view from the profile. Well, I am no sniper, but I can do with pistols and sub machine guns." She waves with her spoon and asks: "Are you a vanguard? Like with heavy tech armor and all the other stuff?" "Nah, I don't do the biotics part. My mom couldn't afford an amp and there is nothing in it for me. I am a norm after all. My support is a tech armor, and several tech-gadgets. And you? What do you do?" She smiles dryly: "I was trained as an infiltrator. Tried to get into special forces, but failed. So, I stayed a Marine. Easy as that. I heard you disappeared from regular operations." "That stuff is classified. Let's just say, I got to meet a lot of people", Briar answers.

The talk leaves the topic of military career and turns to boring small talk about vacation, gossip and stories from basic training. They both had the same drill instructor.

_"__The fuck, you draggin' your feet Private?" Briar was on Titan for the first time. He had left the shuttle with his unit, but had stopped to observe the beauty of Jupiter in the sky. A drill instructor, named Gunnery Sergeant Platt caught the recruit and chewed him out for this transgression. In the eyes of the recruits Platt was the meanest man on all of Titan. "Are you marbled? Huh?", the drill instructor bellowed, "Are you Private?"_

_Briar snapped at attention and yelled at the top of his lungs: "No, sir!" "Well then drop and give me fifty!", the instructor yelled. Briar wanted to drop his pack before doing so, but Platt yelled again: "With the pack, don't drop your stuff, unless specifically ordered to do so." Briar dropped and did his best. He could do almost 200 pushups, without extra weights, but right now the gravity was higher and he was carrying almost 40 kilograms of weight on his back. Briar barely managed 50 pushups, before standing up again and falling in line with the other recruits. He didn't moan at all and from then on did his best to achieve all of the goals in his basic training._

_Platt was harsh, but fair. He did his best to train them. Nothing appeared to be done with sadistic intent. Platt always wore the same uniform. It never seemed to get swetty or dirty, no matter what he did with the recruits. Platt even kept his US Marine Corps hat, which he wore everywhere. He even put it on top of his helmet during space drills. That thing was scary. The worst punishments Platt could think of usually started with him throwing that hat. _

_Platt had only one great weakness: He was a huge fan of the new series: 'The Marine & The Fleet'. The installments of this movie tell the story of a Marine, that was wounded on Shanxi and brought aboard a Turian frigate, where he falls in love with a young female tactical officer.  
The third movie hit the cinema during Briar's basic training. Suddenly the crew had an entire evening off. Because they didn't know what to do, Briar and three other recruits left the base, by climbing over the fence and went to the only cinema on Titan. They actually got seats in the premiere of 'The Marine & The Fleet', because one of them knew the owner._

_When the four took their seats, they were right next to Gunnery Sergeant Platt. He noticed the four at the end of the movie, when Briarmie, the idiot of the unit, got up to clap. Platt was kind enough to wait until they were outside, before asking, whether the four of them went AWOL. When they were awkward about it and didn't want to answer, he chuckled and gave them a ten minutes head start to get to their bunks and look like they were there all evening. The four of them ran like hell. Briar got undressed and hit the shower. Briarmie got a wet sweaty muscle shirt and started running. Joanna sat down in the mess hall and pulled out a book, she and read before. The fourth, the squad leader just dumped himself into bed, falling asleep right away. When Platt came back, he laughed his ass off. _

_Damn, Briar misses the man and his special tone._

Lt. Commander Joan Wilkins talks about her basic training. Apparently, Platt did not change at all, which was the bane of Joan's squad. Platt even kept throwing the hat. Joan was the problem of the unit. She got into trouble during every training. She almost died during a vacuum test, because she accidentally touched an uninsulated power line. She tells a few sob stories about the fights, she got in with other recruits, but smiles, while she shows the scars from a knife fight.

Briar enjoys the meal, until one of the patrol units contacts him on his omnitool. The soldier murmurs: "We found traces of unregistered guests aboard the ship. We have tracked them down to the unused emergency hangar at the end of the ship. We require assistance in clearing the room."

Briar jumps up.

Briar responds on the Alliance channel: "Standby- teams, prepare for your engagements. We have uninvited guests." Briar quickly activates the combat protocols of his omnitool and walks out on his meal and the others with an abrupt: "I'll be right back." Outside the canteen he starts to run. The ship is almost 600 meters long, and this emergency hangar is located at the rear end of the ship, between the massive thruster arrays. Briar brushes past several small groups of technicians, soldiers and flight crews. The standby crew joins Briar on his way to the destination. The twenty Marines are armed and ready. The biotic's fingers have a light blue shine to them, the sniper switched to an assault rifle to deal with the enclosed space. One of the two Corporals brought Briar's Tempest and shield generator. While walking, he clips the generator to his belt and sticks the gun into his pocket.

The patrol has gathered in front of the hangar. The Corporal of the squad greets Briar with a quick summary: "We have seven suspects in the hangar. We diverted the power away from the escape pods, to prevent them from using them." Briar asks: "Life signs?" "Of six of them. One of them is Geth", the Corporal answers. Briar hangs his head and grumbles: "If that's a joke, you'll be running around the ship for hours." The Corporal shows the scanning results, revealing several superior weapons and a Geth. Briar takes a step back and holds his forehead, while planning. "Okay. We try to overwhelm them. Two entry teams, non-lethal ammunition and a shock drone. Entry after a flashbang. Prepare an overcharge for the Geth just in case." The soldiers nod in agreement and split up into two groups.

Briar quietly counts to three and opens the door. Two soldiers toss a flashbang into opposite directions of the room. Twenty men charge into the room, followed by a shock drone and Lt. Commander Mason. The passengers in the room are overwhelmed by the flash. Before they regain composure, the soldiers overwhelm them quick and hard. One of them grabs his rifle, but is struck with a stun baton by a sentinel. The Geth tries to throw a punch, but a technician zaps the Geth, taking him out. A young woman screams surprised, when three rifles are aimed at her, an Asari gathers biotic force, but can't gather her power, before the assault squad biotic, slams her into the wall. The last three in the centre of the room raise their hands. When all is done and the smoke clouds dissipate, all seven passengers are in custody.

Three of them unconscious or deactivated, four are under arrest. The group of three people, that have surrendered right away looks peculiar. One of them is wearing a white bodysuit and a black coat. She has long black hair and looks like the genuine reincarnation of a goddess. The second is wearing barely anything. Her entire body is covered in tattoos. There are a few stubbles on her head, but she is mostly bald. The third is a black man wearing an old alliance uniform in black and white, with square shaped holes cut into the chest area and on both shoulders. _Cerberus._ The geth has a hole in his chest. The woman that screamed, wears a standard clothing and looks almost as perfect as the reincarnated goddess. The stunned man is a Turian, wearing blue C-Sec standard armor. His gun flew through the room and hit the knocked out Asari on the head. The spot is already turning a darker shade of blue. She is wearing a red armor. While cuffing her, a Marine chuckles: "Red versus Blue: 0 to 1."

The tattooed woman snorts a laugh, but immediately grows serious again, when a soldier with handcuffs approaches her. She starts yelling: "Stay away you fucker! I am not going back to jail!" Then she jumps up and tries to attack the Marine. Briar reacts as quickly as possible and throws a cryo charge at her. It makes contact, causing her to slow down enough for the Marines to jump her. The biotic pulls out a suppressor and places it onto her neck. When activated, it should stop her from using her biotics. The other passengers do not resist. They are all cuffed and sat down against a wall after being searched.

Briar looks around the room. The hangar is stuffed to the brim with supplies. Most of it is food and water. Only one crate of thermal mags and four grenades. Apart from the girl in civilian clothes everyone is carrying two different weapons. The Asari wakes up and looks at Briar perfectly serene, then says: "I am forced to comply for 24 hours, then I will continue my journey, as the code requires. Then I shall continue with my journey." "I'll hope I have you in a shuttle destined for Thessia by then. I don't like trouble and while Daar, sorry Commander Daar is getting his ass kicked, I have to take care of this situation", Briar answers. He almost instinctively offers her a hand to shake, but stops himself just in time, in order not to look stupid. Briar introduces himself: "I am Lt. Commander Mason. Now what in the hell are you seven doing on my ship? Especially with a Geth, that I should have blasted?"

Daar's voice is audible from behind: "Your ship? Lt. Commander, thanks for the notification." Briar darts around and salutes: "Yes, Commander." Daar answers the salute in a sloppy manner and gives the order: "Search for explosives apart from those grenades over there. Have them take all of them onto the cell level with the our very good friend Duchamp. Sit them down there and ask a few questions. I'll ask the Captain about them. I am very sure, that that ass knows something he isn't telling."

Briar is surprised. _Damn he is right. _Although Briar has no idea about the Captain, but kind of believes his superior in the assessment. The arrested can't have sneaked aboard. The ship never landed on Illium. Someone must have brought them on board and that someone must have been an influential crew member.

Briar nods in agreement and spreads the orders. Experts are to search through the crates in the hangar, look under the beds, open every suitcase, if necessary, rip up the floor and wall panels. Brain orders seven soldiers to accompany him and the caught to the prison cell, which is way too small to hold eight people. Briar knocks against the door of the cell. Duchamp hisses at him, to which Briar responds: "Be nice, or we'll pile those seven over here into that shitty room. The demoted Lt. Commander shuts up and pouts towards the wall. Briar turns to the seven arrested and explains: "If nobody gives me grief, we can solve the problem at hand and we all can continue to enjoy our stay aboard this line of Trans-Eezoo airways. I am going to ask questions and I want an eazy answer, or I'll hurt you. Are we clear?"

All of them answer: "Yes." Most of them answer quickly and appear to be cooperative. Only tattooed girl shakes herself and licks her frostbitten fingers. Briar likes to do the interrogations quickly, when gets the feeling, that the people have no evil intent, so he asks: "Why are you aboard a ship that is heading towards Earth?" The Turian answers: "To visit a friend." "Couldn't you have just booked a flight on a passenger ship?", Briar asks. The reincarnated goddess shakes her head and answers: "That wouldn't work. Former operatives of Cerbures don't have it easy to get anywhere near our friend." Briar holds his forehead and asks in a clear tone: "What the hell? Now I have a Cerberus gun team on board?" The tattooed woman pipes up: "You got a team of heroes on board! I don't work for Cerberus, nor does bird man over there or Miss Blue here. And definitely not our little flash light over here."

Briar laughs in disbelief. "A team of heroes, hiding like puny criminals as stowaways aboard a ship. I am really sorry; I didn't bring the kaviar and the champagne." The civilian girl looks up and asks: "Really?" "No."

The Turian starts laughing. Okay that went well. "Names?", Briar asks on.

The white body suit says: "My name is Miranda L-Larsson and this is my sister Ori Larsson." The civilian smiles a greeting.

The tattooed girl volunteers: "Jack. Just Jack. Fuck the names." Briar murmurs: "Jack. Non-compliant in relation to her surname. I guess she never took one."

The African American answers: "Jacob Taylor. I will cooperate." Briar writes it down.

The Geth says: "We are Legion."

The red-dressed Asari introduces herself: "I am Samara of the Justicars."

_That's a wakko team. How can they cooperate at all?_

"Should we drop you off somewhere?", Briar asks. Miranda jumps at the opportunity and asks: "Would the Citadel be acceptable?" Briar nods and says: "I'll talk to the Captain. Anywhere else?" The team looks at each other and with their eyes decides: "We'll take the Citadel." Only the tattoed woman sits still.

Daar shows up and orders: "Open the handcuffs. These are guests of the Alliance and have received immunity for their cooperation with Commander Shepard against the Collectors. We are to take them wherever they want to go." Briar looks at his notes: "Well, they all want to go to the Citadel." The Marines open the handcuffs and walk away. The group looks worried. Then the tattooed girl asks: "Are we still staying in the hangar?"

"Yes, angry tattoo lady.", Briar answers. The woman gets up in his face and hisses: "It's Jack." Briar suppresses the urge to take a step back and answers: "That's cool." She takes a step back and laughs heartily. Then she slaps his face lightly and laughs: "I like this guy." Then she follows the others back to the hangar. He turns towards Daar and asks: "Do they actually work for Commander Shepard, or do you just feel lazy, right now?" "They actually did. And some deal ensures their safety and transfer to the Citadel. I saw it and it was confirmed by Ambassador Anderson. Let's hope for the best", Daar answers and leaves.

In the evening, two hours, before reaching the Citadel, Briar is lying on his bunk and is reading his new, favorite book. He just got to the good part, when someone knocks on the door frame. He looks up from his book and asks: "What? I'm off duty." "And you're reading very mature literature. You might want to spare a moment, before I start wrecking shit", the voice announces. Briar looks up and notices barely dressed legs and lots of tattoos. "Okay, okay you got me. I'm coming", he announces and stands up. Although he is off duty, he is still wearing his uniform pants and a t-shirt with his unit's designation on the right chest. It reads "I4". "Oh god, it's the tattooed lady. What may I do for you? Some casual fist fighting, rough sex or a murder charge?" Her body lights up and she lifts the Lt. Commander off the ground with her flaring biotics, while yelling: "I have a name!" He turns pale. _Damn that hit a nerve._ "Okay, okay, sorry. ITWONTHAPPENAGAIN!", he blurts and nods his head affirmingly. She smiles and offers: "Call me Jack please."

He tries to move his hand to great her, but the biotic field around him blocks him from moving at all. "Would you mind sitting me down please?", he asks. The woman, Jack, drops Briar to the floor, where he tries to get his stretched-out tendons to work properly again. She waves him over to sit outside the shelter. When he comes outside and sits down, she sits next to him and asks: "How do you plan for a future?" _What?_


	5. Chapter 5 shenanigans on the ship

**This is Chapter 5! Hit me up with a few comments! I'll take anything from threats to criticism, even a well written death threat towards my dog would be really great!**

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"How, what, why are you asking?", Briar stutters, "are you pregnant? You know, children shouldn't be tattooed too early in their life and during pregnancy you should not consume any type of addictive drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, you should avoid any type of unnecessary prescription meds."

"No you idiot", Jack answers, punching him on the shoulder: "I want a job, I can do, without any type of education."

Briar looks at her and asks: "You can write?"

"Yes."

"Can you read?"

"Yes. That's kind of a part of writing, you know?"

"Maths?

"Nothing too fancy."

"History?"

I learned from the Normandy archives."

"Biotics?"

"I'm the best human biotic in business. I got a certificate of that from Commander Shepard."

"I'm gonna trust you on that one. But you better have it around."

I do. It's the only certificate I have."

Briar leans back and asks: "Can you teach others about biotics?" "I don't think you are a biotic. Don't change the topic", she answers. He shakes his head: "Jack, I know someone…" You do?", She asks sarcastically. Briar shakes his head and says in an annoyed tone: "I know several people. This one in particular might be helpful for you. She works at the Grisom Academy for gifted children." "So, what?", Jack asks impatiently. Briar sighs annoyed: "I was going to call her and tell her, that I had the most powerful human biotic for that job. The only other applicant for that class is a former Cerberus scientist, who claims to have cut all connections. Why don't you try?"

Jack starts to squirm and looks embarrassed. She looks worried about the offer and asks: "You think I can do that?" "Are you scared of a few kids? Does the prospect of having to deal with other people scare you?", Briar taunts. Jack looks at him and actually gets a little red in the face. "No, I don't think that would be too hard to do", she retorts. Briar sighs.

_His contact owes him a lot. He knew her from a champagne evening, which he was forced to attend on Earth, by his superior Admiral Yin-Chu. She was in the company of Captain Anderson. She told him about a case of abduction in her family and, with the boring environment, he ditched the party and went off to find the abducted boy. He found the Broker, who made the contact between the parties and asked unpleasant questions at gunpoint. Then he sneaked into the warehouse, the abductors were hiding in, and pulled a Solid Snake on them with a stolen silenced handgun and some neck breaking action. When the AMPs arrived, they had several mean questions. He took the kid back to the appropriate family and returned to see the end of the shitty party_.

He received a big "I owe you" from this young teacher Kahlee Sanders.

This is about to be cashed in. "Did you ever kill a minor, since you left the facility, you were kept in?", he asks. Jack ponders the question way too long, touching her forehead with the left hand, striking a thinking pose, until asking: "Does a 40 year old Asari count?" Briar can't resist the urge to slap her against the back of the head, like he did with pupils that refused to learn.

Before she can get angry and punch him back, he snaps: "This is an important question, when asking a teacher, that teaches biotics. What do you think is the answer, they want to hear in the interview for the job?" He grabs two chairs and a table from two Marines, who are taking them apart to stow in the back. He puts them down and sits Jack on one chair. He plants Jack on one side of the table and sits down on the other side. "We're going to play a game: "It's called job interview. That's like a police interrogation. Tell the people what they want to know. That is not necessarily the truth. Okay?", he explains patiently.

* * *

Jack nods nervously. Briar gets ready and activates his Omni tool. Then he takes a deep breath, before starting: "Good afternoon, Miss Jacqueline Nought. I hope you had a nice flight to our beautiful Grissom Academy. I read your application and I have several questions to the information you offered. Is that okay with you?"

"If you have to… But don't be too nosey… Fuck. I meant: [In a beautiful voice] I would be happy to answer any questions you might have."

[Briar decides to accept the statement] "No cursing, Miss Nought. Your file says, that you spent several years as a child in a facility, forced to endure abuse. What is your opinion on violence in educational contexts?"

[Jack thinks really hard] "I… don't want anyone else to experience abuse during the training as a biotic. Especially those with potential should learn in a non-violent environment."

"Good. Your record says that you spent several years of your life in different jails in the Milky Way. Were any of the crimes related to children or committed against minors in any way?"

[Jack looks at Briar with intent] "No not all."

"Good, Miss Nought. You wouldn't be sitting here if that were the case. Do you have any experience teaching biotics? "

[Jack smiles] "I taught Commander Shepard a few of my tricks. She likes them and got more powerful, than before."

[Briar laughs a little] "Play on the Shepard thing more. You can get the most points out of that one."

Jack breaks up the situation and starts laughing. She falls off her chair laughing. "This is so not happening. I am going to fuck up so hard on that interview." Briar laughs and tells her: "Just refrain from cursing and play your biotics card and the 'I fucked up the Collectors' card right. Miss Sanders can add you to the list and support you, but her hands are tied, when it gets to the decisions. Now do me a favor and type out a CV and an application. No cursing. I'll read through it and I will fuck you up, if you leave out anything major." Jack smiles and asks: "You got a terminal somewhere that I can use?" Briar points to the commons area of the small camp in the hangar, where some IT specialists have put up two terminals for public use: "Now zip off. I am busy at the moment. I have to make a few calls."

Briar writes a quick message to principle Sanders:

From:

To:

About: Job application instructor for biotics

_Hello Kahlee_

_I hope we are still in good terms, because I want to cash in the favor you owe me and get someone into the job interviews for the job as a biotics instructor. _

_She claims to be the best biotic with a human genome. Could you at least invite her and talk to her?_

_Yours sincerelly,_

_Briar Mason_

He hits send and ponders whether it was a bad idea to use this favor on the future of an aggressive tattooed woman. In his mind the decision is worth every cent, but the doubt is still there. Then he goes back into the room and decides to read a few more lines, before hitting the sack. He sits down on his bunk and grabs the book.

Briar can't remember, what happened after that, but he is woken up by an incessant knocking and the moaning of the other officers in the room. Briar gets up and quietly announces: "That's probably for me." The Ensign mutters: "Now I know, why higher-ranking officers have the single rooms." Briar scrambles out of bed and opens the door.

There stands Daar in full dress uniform. Briar apparently looks really horrible, because Daar says: "Oh my god, my stuff can wait. Go grab a shower!" Briar looks at Daar with small eyes: "What is going on?" Daar smiles like a child and almost yells: "I am going to keep my job!" Briar's eyes grow narrow. "You are going to have to explain that", Briar mutters and opens his bag to get a clean set of clothes. He grabs a set of standard uniform pieces and his gun belt. Before he gets changed, Briar sniffs his armpit and pulls a face. "Can we meet in the mess in 20? I gotta clean myself first. I smell like shit." Daar nods and says kindly: "Do that. Will see you there.

Briar shuffles towards the showers and drops his clothes into the stand next to the door to the showers and takes his appliances into the showers. The room is empty. The Alliance used to offer unisex showers in the early times, but in the mean time separation was adopted, because, there complaints from both sides about improper behavior. Briar flips on the closest shower and steps under the warm water. He soaks up quickly and starts smiling. The warm water captures memories. With all the dirt and sweat, that you wash off your body, sad memories crawl to the back of your head in the warm water.

Briar is lost in thought while applying Alliance issue body wash, when someone whistles approvingly from the side. Another Marine enters, yelling: "The early bird is a Lieutenant Commander!" "I'm done in a second. You can't talk to your superior, looking like shit!", Briar replies. With the first Marine several others join in and the magic of the moment is gone. Briar rinses down quickly and gets dressed again.

Outside the door Briar puts on his clean uniform as quickly as possible. He sends his dirty clothes to the cleaning system of the ship. The Alliance is adamant about wearing fresh underwear every morning. It shows respect towards the people responsible for you and your DUI charges (not that you could get any on Titan). Briar wants to head towards the canteen again, but is interrupted by Jack. She walks up to him and hands him a paper version of her application. Her CV is long and she has included several papers. Some appear to be certificates, one of them is a reference written by Commander Shepard. Briar smiles warmly and offers: "I'll look through it later." Jack starts pacing and mutters: "Alright, don't take too long."

Briar walks down the corridors to the mess. Daar is sitting there and looks happy. One of the Asari is sitting with him and the two are drinking the heavy stuff. Someone brought a very strong vodka from the 21st century. It's the very heavy stuff, that can get the strongest human wasted in the first three drinks and the bottle is almost empty. _How? He only took 15 of the designated minutes. _Briar approaches the table and sits down or at least attempts. The benches are occupied by passed out Asari commandos. The surviving Asari is the Justicar Samara. She is swaying and visibly intoxicated. Carefully Briar lifts up the body of an Asari and places her upper body on the table. Then he sits down and grabs the bottle. The label gives the name and the year it was produced: "Blyat. 2098." Then the subtitle: "The strongest shit you'll ever drink." Briar turns the bottle and looks for the proof. There's a percentage. It's over 8o percent. "This stuff is practically ethanol. Are you guys nuts?", Briar mutters. Samara downs her drink and looks stoic, before getting the hiccups. "Daar what are you doing? Why are you getting the Asari shitfaced?" The officer laughs and pours Samara another drink. Briar snatches the glasses and the bottle and pours it into the sink. "Are you crazy. You are on duty, Daar. This could get you the demotion, you just avoided", Briar scolds.  
One of the Asari, Briar thinks the Matron, starts giggling. Then she whispers: "I don't feel so good. I think I have to…" Briar grabs her and drags her to the sink, where she starts to throw up. Since his brief visit to the culb district of Ilium, he hasn't seen an Asari this drunk. The muscular Asari jumps up an grabs the trashcan, crying. The other Asari start to shuffle towards the exit. Two of them are can't walk by themselves and are carried by Samara and the other Asari.

Briar sits down opposite of his SO and asks as honestly as he can: "What happened?"

Daar leans back and explains: "The Admiral Duchamp was kicked out of Command. He commands an outpost in the Attican Traverse now. His daughter is going to work for some General and will never receive a promotion. I feel kinda sorry for her. She never knew how to fend for herself and everything she is in the military is now going to change in a very unpleasant way." Briar smirks and helps Daar stand up and starts to take the wobbly officer back to his room in the crew quarters. Luckily Daar doesn't get sick during the transport and keeps the content of his stomach. Briar dumps tall man onto his bed and leaves him there, with a bucket next to the bed.

On the elevator ride down to the hangar, Briar grabs the papers Jack gave him and starts to read her application. It sounds nice: Jacqueline Nought

_Hello Mrs. Sanders,_

_My name is Jacqueline Nought and I would like to apply for a position as biotics instructor in the Grissom Academy. I found out about this position from an officer, who I asked to help me in finding a future, that would not get me killed. He pointed out that this position would be good for me, because..._

The text fills about a page and makes Briar grin about the content. She definitely took her time, when writing the text. When Briar walks into the hangar, he heads towards his bunk. He decides to deal with the other stuff later. When he finally can lie down again, it is already fou o'clock and Briar is looking forward to finally catching some sleep.

\- End of the Chapter -


End file.
